Eternity in the Making

The morning of December 19, 1969 dawned crisp and clear in Salt Lake City, Utah. I picked up my bride-to-be, Patsy Hewlett, early on our way to the Salt Lake Temple to be sealed for time and for all eternity to each other. My Grandfather, Harold B. Lee, then one of the senior Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was scheduled to officiate at the ordinance that would bind us to one another. He was very emotional during the brief ceremony, sensing, I felt, the spirits of those who would come through our union. I believe he knew the identities of each one who would come to join our family.

On another December day fifty years later in 2019 we would gather as many of our children and grandchildren as we could to participate in a sealing session in the Salt Lake Temple just before it closed for what will be an extensive four-year renovation. We were assigned to the sealing room behind the old sealing office just off the Celestial Room to perform proxy ordinances of marriage for our deceased ancestors – all family names our family had prepared. One by one we took our turns at the altar in the center of the room and relived again the morning it all began with just the two of us in 1969. This time the altar was surrounded by our cherished posterity, all of whom had been sealed as couples in previous live ordinances for themselves. The realization of that blessing pronounced upon us fifty years earlier had come to pass, fifty years in the making.

Patsy and I have been through many wonderful and challenging times together over those fifty years. Perhaps the most humbling of all has been this last several years as we sought diligently to petition our Father in Heaven for answers to my deteriorating health. The downward slide accelerated in the last six months. I know it is good to be humble without being compelled to be humble, but this last six months especially we have been compelled to be humble. Our circumstances are not unusual for most people as they grow older. Few old people I have known are afraid to die, it’s just the getting there that is so difficult.

We simply could not find that elusive answer to why I was “off” from what everyone had known me to be earlier in my life. Then the meningioma brain tumor was diagnosed, and the answer to the medical mystery was staring right back at us from the doctor’s computer screen. It was the brain that had been squeezed and compressed over a long period.

So compromised had I become pre-surgery that I calculated I was at about a 2 on a 100 scale. I had my heart and my lungs that were still functioning well – everything else had been shut down as my brain’s way of compensating to keep me alive. Simple tasks in earlier years were now seemingly impossible to accomplish. My brain told me I could do these things – I had always done these things – but I had lost the ability to do them. My doctor had told me, “Anybody can exercise for ten minutes a day,” and I agreed in principle to that statement. I had gone for much longer periods of heavier exercise before. But I couldn’t do it anymore. I could barely get out of bed, and then I wobbled badly on my weak leg muscles.  

Post-surgery I wasn’t much better for three weeks. I was childlike. I had to master the control of my bladder and my bowels again like a little child in diapers, and I was wearing adult diapers. I was compelled to be humble. I had to learn to eat for myself again. I had to learn to balance and to walk again, at first mastering only a few steps to the bathroom and back using a walker for balance. I couldn’t do any of those things I had always done until my brain fog cleared and the blood clot that occupied the space where the tumor had been in my brain at the incision spot had dissipated. It took about three weeks.

Now our prayers have been fully answered. I have been cured and I have been healed. Humility is now once again a choice for me.

Fifty years is a long time to be married to the same person. It’s a golden time in our lives now. That’s why no one knew me better than Patsy, and why her instincts (impressions of the Spirit) could not be dismissed so easily. She knew me better than I knew myself, and she certainly knew me better than all the doctors and their scientific training. Once they listened to her and responded to her demands for the MRI, the source of our long struggle for answers was finally revealed.

We have been studying together the outlines of the Book of Mormon chapters in Come Follow Me. We are now into the book of Helaman. There is a constant ebb and flow among the Nephites and Lamanites at this point in their history. One year the Lamanites are repenting and receiving great blessings from the Lord, then they become prideful. Another year the Nephites are repenting, and they become more righteous than the Lamanites and they are blessed continually. Then this one verse leaps out as a pattern scripture for us to learn to live by, whether we are “Lamanites” or “Nephites:”

Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts,  which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God. (Helaman 3:34).

My children are old enough now to see some of their friends who were once faithful members of the Church begin leaving and taking their families with them into the wilderness of apostasy because they have “done their research” and learned about “facts” they were never taught in the Church. They often come to me with their stories about their friends who have left, and they are saddened by the stories they read on their friends’ social media pages about their reasons for leaving. I encourage my children to be patient and to try to be like Heavenly Father. Can you imagine Him pacing around His throne wringing His hands over every soul who turns away for a season? Having vouched safe the moral agency of His children from the beginning and put a Redeemer in place to assure the demands of justice are fully satisfied through mercy conditioned upon the repentance of His children, He waits patiently for the fruits of the vineyard to come forth in the glorious harvest He envisions for each of His children. That’s the perspective we must have too – be patient and wait for the harvest that will surely come.

Mormon uses a phrase “thus we see” as an editorial comment in his editorial work of summarizing the records:

Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked – And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers to go no more out. (Helaman 3:29-30).

Let us all “lay hold” upon the word of God, slow down, turn down the noise in our busy lives, take a deep breath, ponder and pray, follow the pattern given to us as cited above, and land our souls at the right hand of God.

 We are in a war for our souls. Believe me I know that as never before. In the varied battles of life Satan takes many prisoners and inflicts many injuries and even deaths. But if we are true and faithful, we will prevail in the final battle of this war, for so it has been written and the scriptures are true. We are building for the eternities, and we are just now beginning to discern the light at the end of the long tunnel of sin and deception.

Are We Saved By Grace or By Works?

In 1999, I prepared some thoughts about this topic and handed it out to the members of my gospel doctrine class. Sixteen years later, my son Joe is now teaching gospel doctrine, and updated my original writing recently. When I read it again, I decided it was worth sharing with everyone who reads this page:

Saved by Grace or by Works? 
What Paul Taught
Joe Goates
September 27, 2015

I recently spoke with a friend about his sister, who has been struggling with her testimony and lacking hope. She feels that all the effort to live the gospel is not worth it, after all, only a relative few will make the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, and she isn’t living up to what she would need to do to obtain that kingdom anyway. My friend asked me if I had any suggestions on some reading material that could restore her hope in the gospel and help her understand how she can obtain this kingdom, which is greatest of all the gifts of God (D&C 6:13). I gave him some suggestions and I hope these thoughts are also helpful for this good sister, and anyone else who has struggled with the same thoughts of inadequacy and lack of hope.

The World Teaches About Paul

Millions of people throughout time have asked the question, “What do I need to do to be saved?” Preachers in churches everywhere proclaim the answer to that question, and it usually involves something like “accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.” Almost all these Christian persuasions have a common thread in their preaching. Each preacher declares his or her version of what they think the Apostle Paul meant in his New Testament epistles.

Joseph Smith

Paul’s teachings about “grace” and being “born again” are often confusing and difficult to understand for many Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith simply declared, “Being born again comes by the Spirit of God through ordinances.” (see TPJS, p. 162). Lacking a knowledge of the restoration and the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, most other Christian evangelists rely heavily upon Paul’s letters to the churches in his day. The missing link in their sermons is that the leaders of the branches of the church to whom Paul wrote (along with their followers) had already received the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. That is why Paul rarely speaks of the preparatory ordinances.

Paul never mentions temple marriage and only makes vague references to the three degrees of glory. He focuses instead on the requirements for salvation after the ordinances of salvation have been received from legal administrators who have the authority “to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof” (Fifth Article of Faith). Paul presumes his readers already know about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, the priesthood and the temple.

What We Think We Believe

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have possession of the fullness of the gospel, the priesthood and all its ordinances (including temple ordinances) are often unsure about their doctrinal position on salvation by grace and being born again.

Some Mormons, especially those raised in the Church think that salvation means only resurrection, a free gift, but that exaltation must be earned by performing good works and by keeping all the commandments. I believe we can trace this common belief back to the legacy of our Pioneer ancestry.

The notion of earning our own way is a cultural bias rooted in the fabric of Mormon history. Nobody gave our ancestors anything. His neighbors beat my great-great-great grandfather James Munns nearly to death the night before he left his hometown of Orwell in Cambridgeshire, England, to sail to America with the Mormons. He went to his grave in Lehi, Utah, bent over and scarred from the wounds he suffered that night for his faith.

We are the descendants of people who were chiseled out of the rock of adversity when they were forced to leave their homes in New York, Kirtland, Jackson County, and then Nauvoo. They eventually conquered the desert wilderness of the Utah territory. They earned everything they got.

This attitude of having to earn our stripes and prove ourselves before God often carries over when it comes to our view on salvation. I have heard many people say, “I’m just not good enough to be a Mormon.”  They end up staying outside the doors because they have an incorrect view of how salvation really works. Thinking you have to “prove yourself” to God is like cancer patients who feel they must cure themselves of the disease before they seek medical attention.

Church programs tend to perpetuate the perfection myth. The problem is that measuring the relative behavior of disciples of Christ and comparing their performance to each other seem completely contrary to the gospel. Perfection presumes that some are better than others, when in reality, all disciples of Christ are, by definition, sinners and fallen beings (Romans 3:23). If salvation was all about what you could accomplish on your own, then why would there be a need to come to Christ?

What is Grace?

If we immerse ourselves in the teaching of the prophets of The Book of Mormon there will come an assurance that we are truly saved by grace, and not by our “good works.” Grace and being born again are topics we should speak more freely of in the Church. (See Mosiah 27: 24-26; Alma 7:14; John 3: 1-5).

On Resurrection Morning

Bible Dictionary’s Definition of Grace:

"It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by His atoning sacrifice, that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life. It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.

"Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the Fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, 'It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.' (2 Ne. 25:23). It is truly the grace of Jesus Christ that makes salvation possible."

Because of Paul and Alma, we know that grace is not a gift that we must qualify for by virtue of righteousness initially, but it is also true that we may grow from “grace to grace” as we obtain “grace for grace.” (See D&C 93:1-20). It is not something you can earn on your own. Grace comes as a gift from God and is showered in doses over all his creations without discrimination.

No one summarizes the idea of what grace is better than Nephi:

"Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves -- to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved.
"Wherefore, may God raise you from death by the power of the resurrection, and also from everlasting death by the power of the atonement, that ye may be received into the eternal kingdom of God, that ye may praise him through grace divine. (2 Nephi 10: 23-25).

So, What are “Good Works?”

Simply put, the “good works” are part of the covenant relationship we enter into as members of the Church. We are to do the works of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This faith leads us to truly repent of our sins. Then we can accept the ordinances of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, the laying on of the hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. In time we receive priesthood ordinations and temple covenants. Enduring to the end of mortal life in those principles and ordinances to the best of our ability.

Those good works built on symbolic covenants are all inspired by obedience to the power of God and his Spirit in us. They are acts of grace growing out of the goodness of God within us. Jesus taught that only God was “good” (Mark 10:18). So did Paul. (Romans 3:10-12). Eternal life is attainable only because of our faith in Christ’s atonement. We earn nothing as fallen beings, because any good in us comes from God. The Holy Ghost either inspires our good works, or our works are merely the works of men and they perish. (3 Nephi 27:10-12). We love and serve others as He loves and serves us — not in an effort to deserve grace, but to accept it and offer it to others as freely as it is offered to us.

Do I Have to Keep the Commandments?

You will not find one latter-day Prophet who stood at the head of this Church in this dispensation who has not admonished the saints to keep the commandments of God.  But we all should realize that the ideal is never achieved in perfection in this life. The long list of commandments and outward ordinances is not unlike the “preparatory gospel” of the Law of Moses, designed to give Israel a “type and shadow” of the spiritual blessings they would ultimately attain through the atonement of Christ. The Law of Moses was never designed to produce salvation (see Mosiah 13: 30-31; 16: 14-15; 2 Nephi 2: 4-7; Romans 3: 20-24), but as sin in the world escalates we zealously admonish one another that not one must be lost. We learn to measure performance and compare relative compliance. We must remember to feed the sheep and not be satisfied with merely counting them. A “real” Mormon, who has been converted from the inside out, may not be praised by man, but he will be praised of God. (See Romans 2: 25-29).

Does Grace or Works Save Us?

The answer is “yes.” When we commit sin and we die a spiritual death we separate ourselves from the companionship of and constant influence of our Heavenly Father’s love and Spirit. When we repent of our sins and come unto Christ, we are rescued and become new creatures. This matter of being saved from sin and being rescued by the Redeemer, is not a one-time confession with our lips only. It takes a lifetime of persistent faith to achieve – but it must be the right “good works” that we do to “retain a remission of our sins” (see Mosiah 4). The works required for salvation are simply accepting, with a pure heart, the covenants and ordinances that give us access to Christ’s atonement and His grace that changes us.

“And of tenets thou shalt not talk, but thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior, and remission of sins by baptism, and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost.
“Behold, this is a great and the last commandment which I shall give unto you concerning this matter; for this shall suffice for thy daily walk, even unto the end of thy life.” (D&C 19:31-32).

"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved." (Omni 1:26).

"And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing....
"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
"And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10: 30, 32-32).

Sometimes this matter of being saved by grace takes a lifetime of learning and a quiet, but persistent overcoming of temptations and habits. We recognize our own feeble efforts will meet with frustration and failure week by week.  That is why we partake of the emblems of Christ’s atonement – the bread and water — each week in the sacramental covenant. The grace of God is the enabling power that makes possible our continued attempts to do better in the works of righteousness as we grow from “grace to grace.” We truly receive more and more as we give more and more grace. Salvation and exaltation is really that simple.

When Your Hut Is On Fire

I am indebted to Jim Ritchie for this story. Thanks, Bro. Jim!

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky.. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. 

He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, "God! How could you do this to me?"

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! 

"How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. 

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied. 

The Moral of This Story: 

It's easy to get discouraged when things are going badly, but we shouldn't lose heart because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. 

Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.

Christ's Grace is Sufficient for All of Us

I'm going to be perhaps a little too autobiographical in this post. But that statement always reminds us we should never apologize too much for personal experiences, since those are the only ones any of us has.

That said, I was sent an e-mail last night by one of our sons. This was his message:

"I wanted to share this with everybody. This is a great message that was recommended to me by a member of my elders quorum and it really resonated with me tonight.

"I know I am not the only one in this family who has a tendency to beat himself up over mistakes I've made (continue to make) so this talk helps me see how unfair I am being to myself when I hold myself to that false standard and wallow in the pain of my imperfections. Christ's grace through His atonement is truly miraculous - I don't understand it but know that I must simply accept it and be grateful for all that it is.

"I love you all. I pray for each of you and your happiness...

"Steve"

It was a BYU Devotional given on July 12, 2011, by Brad Wilcox. His title was "His Grace is Sufficient". If you've got thirty minutes, it will be time well-spent. Here's the transcript of his talk.



After watching his talk this morning I was reminded of something I wrote years ago. I titled it "The Impossible Gospel" and included it as Chapter Ten of our book, Power and Covenants: Men, Women and Priesthood. I titled that chapter "No Power in the Law". We wrote that manuscript back in 1996, so I must have written my article years before that. I submitted it for possible publication in the Ensign, but it may have been a little ahead of its time. It was before we started to see articles it the Ensign about child abuse, divorce, pornography, gays and lesbians - you know, before we admitted to ourselves in the Church that we were failing miserably under the rigorous demands of the law of Moses. So they politely declined to publish it way back then. Perhaps today it would be better received.

I wrote back to Steve and the rest of our family in response to his e-mail last night. This is what I told them:

"I endorse this. Thanks Steve for the great reminder. I grew up in a home where false doctrine in the form of strict compliance and outward behavior was preached and required. Always there were constant reminders that we were the family of a prophet of God and we must set an example of perfection (yes, perfection) before the Church. Even Grandfather Lee told us on more than one occasion, 'My sermons will never be more effective than the lives you live.' It was a heavy burden to bear as his oldest grandson.

"I was spared from the effects of that false doctrine and rescued in my embrace of, and my personal need for, the grace of Christ. I knew I could never measure up, even though for years I tried my very best. It was never enough. I kept failing in even the simplest of carnal desires. My natural man was well-developed at an early age.

"In later years, I have come to love and accept my father wholly and without judgment for who he is - a devout Pharisee. I've even lovingly joked with him about it. There really isn't anything terribly wrong with being a Pharisee because they are so observant. The only weakness is they (my dear father included) won't live long enough to have mastered all 613 points of the law of Moses. The sum of all the knots in the Jewish prayer shawl is 613, because that is traditionally the number of mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah. Unfortunately, as witnessed by Steve's observations in his e-mail, some of you have inherited this false tradition despite my diligent efforts to banish such heresy from our family.

"Many years ago I wrote an article I submitted for consideration to be published in the Ensign. They politely declined my unsolicited submission (it was when a former missionary companion, Giles Florence, was one of the editors). I have now lived long enough that it might be better received today. I titled it 'The Impossible Gospel'. Search for it on Goates Notes, you'll find it there. I've written about this subject extensively. I read it again this morning, and it's still timeless in my humble opinion.

"Embrace it. Accept the grace of our Savior for you. He loves you in your imperfection. Don't think you have to wait to go to Him for help until you are 'worthy enough' or until you 'know enough'. He will bless you with an abundance of His grace, His enabling power, to make of you something far in excess of who you are today if you will partner with Him today. Don't wait. His grace is sufficient because you never will be worthy enough, you will never know enough, you will never have enough money, and you will never be righteous enough. . . you'll have to think about that, perhaps. I will say this, however, you are all good looking enough ;-) Thank God for good genes.

"I had a 'shower revelation' years ago - that's where I receive a lot of great inspiration. A voice whispered to me, 'Teach your children the gospel of Jesus Christ so well that when they hear it taught in power and authority years later it will merely be an echo, not some strange new sound.' Now that you all have children of your own, I pass that torch along to each of you.

"Love and blessings,

"Dad"

"Be of Good Cheer"

The Apostle Paul has always been one of my scripture heroes. Once in a group of young married couples gathered for game night, the question was asked, "Who is your favorite author?" My reply, "Paul." Everyone demanded to know, "Paul who?" My answer: "Paul the Apostle." "Oh," was the predictable response. I was admitting my lack of literary awareness in their eyes.

But I stand by the answer. Paul was once in bondage among his accusers, the Jews. It seems they were divided as Sadducees and Pharisees, and offended by his doctrine of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul, notwithstanding his eyewitness testimony of the events on the road to Damascus, was vilified and discredited among his peers. Here's one example from his life:

And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.
And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.
And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.
And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy. (Acts 23:9-13, emphasis mine).

The Lord said to Paul, who was in chains, "Be of good cheer." That's optimism from the Lord to one faced with certain death. In essence, "You've been incarcerated for my name's sake in Jerusalem, but they won't kill you yet, because you're still going to Rome to testify of me." What Paul couldn't know after he miraculously escaped that conspiracy at Jerusalem was that things would really get dicey in Rome.

Perhaps it was the resurrected Lord quoting the condemned mortal Jesus. Facing the cruel agony He alone knew He would face in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, the Savior said to his baffled disciples:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:
For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.
Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:20-33, emphasis mine).

How could the Savior possibly say, "Be of good cheer" under such adverse conditions? And how audacious to think He had "overcome the world" when the world was about to crucify Him in the fashion of cruel Roman justice to pacify the Jewish co-conspirators!

I thought of the Savior's encounter with stormy seas in the wake of the devastation we have witnessed this past week in what has been dubbed "the worst storm ever" in the Philippines. These images are sobering as we think of the suffering of the families of those estimated 10,000 who perished. The actual number may never be known, the proportions of destruction now being described as "Biblical."

Earlier during His mortal ministry, after learning that day John the Baptist had been beheaded, the Savior spoke to and fed a large multitude. He sent His Apostles into a ship and went alone into a mountain where He observed them toiling all night in a sudden storm on the Sea of Galilee. Late that night, just before dawn, in the "fourth watch" between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., He appeared on the stormy waters before them. Then we have this account, once again an indication of His optimism in the face of imminent disaster:

And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain, apart, to pray.
And when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves; for the wind was contrary.
And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. (JST John 14:19-23, emphasis mine).

He tried their faith until the uttermost extremity in the early morning hours. And so it is with us sometimes. And after the winds and the waves have sufficiently beaten us down to a point where there is little left to hope for, He appears and reminds us there is nothing to fear after all. He brings "cheer" to comfort us.

We have other examples from scripture. On the night before the Babe of Bethlehem was born, the true believers on the American continent half a world away were faced with certain death at the hands of the unbelievers, who threatened to put them to death unless they disavowed their faith in the Promised Messiah:

Now it came to pass that there was a day set apart by the unbelievers, that all those who believed in those traditions should be put to death except the sign should come to pass, which had been given by Samuel the prophet.
Now it came to pass that when Nephi, the son of Nephi, saw this wickedness of his people, his heart was exceedingly sorrowful.
And it came to pass that he went out and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the tradition of their fathers.
And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:
Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.
Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfil all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and to do the will, both of the Father and of the Son — of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given. (3 Nephi 1:9-14, emphasis mine).

In our day as early as 1831 in Hiram, Ohio:

Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come. (D&C 68:6, emphasis mine).

A year later, also in Hiram, Ohio:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.
And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more. (D&C 78:16-19, emphasis mine).

To Thomas B. Marsh in Kirtland, Ohio, 1838:

Nevertheless, inasmuch as thou hast abased thyself thou shalt be exalted; therefore, all thy sins are forgiven thee.
Let thy heart be of good cheer before my face; and thou shalt bear record of my name, not only unto the Gentiles, but also unto the Jews; and thou shalt send forth my word unto the ends of the earth.
Contend thou, therefore, morning by morning; and day after day let thy warning voice go forth; and when the night cometh let not the inhabitants of the earth slumber, because of thy speech.
Let thy habitation be known in Zion, and remove not thy house; for I, the Lord, have a great work for thee to do, in publishing my name among the children of men.
Therefore, gird up thy loins for the work. Let thy feet be shod also, for thou art chosen, and thy path lieth among the mountains, and among many nations.
And by thy word many high ones shall be brought low, and by thy word many low ones shall be exalted.
Thy voice shall be a rebuke unto the transgressor; and at thy rebuke let the tongue of the slanderer cease its perverseness.
Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers. (D&C 112:3-10, emphasis mine).

So in the space of a week I've gone from pondering the effects of "sore trials" to the seeming irony of the Savior's injunction, "Be of good cheer."

Sometimes in life we encounter circumstances over which we have absolutely no control. We buckle under the weight of burdens we cannot possibly overcome or sustain. We are promised, however, in sacred precincts that we will be blessed to bear the weight of those burdens placed upon our shoulders. I am grateful for an optimistic God. I am grateful for His optimistic prophets, who seem to have no fear in the face of seemingly impossible odds stacked against them to move the kingdom of God forward in the earth in these last days.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

I was reminded this week of something Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote:

"Gospel gladness is possible even in the midst of affliction, because of the reassuring realities that pertain to our mortal circumstance. The everlastingness of certain things puts the temporariness of other things in perspective. God's promises to us are so rich that even difficult tactical circumstances cannot conceal our causes for genuine cheerfulness: God is in charge; God's plan of happiness is underway; momentary tribulation does not set aside the universal resurrection, which is a reality; individual identity and personality are thereby assured; death has been defeated by Christ's atonement; and Satan and his misery-causing minions will finally be defeated. Each of these (and many more) form the litany of reassuring reality.

"Thus we should not let the gray mists of the moment obscure the bright promises and prospects of eternity. Gospel gladness is a precious, precious perspective — essential to have, if one is to keep his attitudinal balance while traveling the straight and narrow way. The way is often no more than a path. It inclines sharply, and it is strewn with loose rocks. Indeed, there are points along the way to be traversed only on one's hands and knees." (Neal A. Maxwell, Even As I Am, 98).

Elder Maxwell concluded this chapter in his book with a marvelous metaphor:

"If in all of this there is some understandable trembling, the adrenalin of affliction can help to ensure that our pace will be brisk rather than casual. His grace will cover us like a cloak — enough to provide for survival but too thin to keep out all the cold. The seeming cold is there to keep us from drowsiness, and gospel gladness warms us enough to keep us going." (ibid., 109, emphasis mine).

President Harold B. Lee

I also stumbled over a poem (source unknown) that President Harold B. Lee cited in his last First Presidency Message (Ensign, August 1974):

May You Have. . .

Enough happiness to keep you sweet,
Enough trials to keep you strong,
Enough sorrow to keep you human,
Enough failure to keep you humble,
Enough success to keep you eager,
Enough friends to give you comfort,
Enough wealth to meet your needs,
Enough enthusiasm to look forward,
Enough faith to banish depression,
Enough determination to make each day better than yesterday.

I believe we have "enough and to spare" when it comes to our hope in Christ's atonement. He did overcome the world - that means the effects of sin and death - all of which is only temporary based upon our miscalculations about their importance in mortality. I conclude with Jacob, the brother of Nephi:

Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves — to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved.
Wherefore, may God raise you from death by the power of the resurrection, and also from everlasting death by the power of the atonement, that ye may be received into the eternal kingdom of God, that ye may praise him through grace divine. Amen. (2 Nephi 10:23-25, emphasis mine).

Sunshine Always Follows the Storms

Utah this spring has been deluged with an abundance of water. On top of record snow totals in the mountains now threatening floods near every open body of water, rain has also been falling in abundance. Last night the showers came again. Early this morning I was awakened by the emerging radiant sunshine over the mountains to the east against a wall-to-wall panorama of blue overhead. The ominous clouds amid thunder, lightning and a torrent of rain had dissipated.

Isn't that exactly what we believe as Christians? Jesus Christ is the source of our light and truth. We receive and partake in His abundant glory bit by bit, day by day, interlaced amid bursts of thundershowers. It was more than rhetoric when He declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6). His declaration is truth. Nothing is appointed unto man "except it be by law, even as I and my Father ordained unto you, before the world was." He continues, "I am the Lord thy God; and I give unto you this commandment — that no man shall come unto the Father but by me or by my word, which is my law, saith the Lord." (D&C 132:11-12). It's a commandment to bask in the light of truth emanating from our Savior.

The word of Jesus Christ is the essence of how we receive light and and truth. It's how we embrace the covenants associated with salvation. His word is equated with His Spirit, with light, and with truth (see D&C 84:45) and so is the priesthood. These are glorious synonyms. As we nurture and care for the word, we receive more and more until the seed has sprouted and then matured within us (see Alma 32). Receiving the word is how we grow in light and truth and avoid the deceptions abounding in mortality. Temptations may cloud our vision momentarily like a passing thunderstorm, but the light always follows the storms. The Savior has only one object in His redemptive work and that is to bring us to a fulness of glory if we will obey and trust His word. He is the Great Prototype. He knows how to obey. He followed the way the Father gave Him. When we receive anything from the Father it is in the same manner Christ received it.

God's glory is the personification of the fulness of light and truth. Christ also received the fulness in a process well defined: "I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not the fulness at the first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness." (D&C 93:12-13). At the Second Coming we will be flooded with light and truth emanating from Him. But even before that day the spread of truth is described as a flood. (Moses 7:62).

Without grace in the process we are certainly doomed to failure in our quest for more light and truth. Notice, He received grace for grace, and He went from grace to grace. The word grace can be defined as "favor, kindness, and goodwill." The theological definition is easily rendered as "the free unmerited love and favor of God," offering divine assistance to the obedient ones who will embrace light and truth. Note the key words here -- love and favor, and unmerited assistance. To receive grace for grace is to receive divine assistance on the condition of giving assistance. We get no better than what we are willing to give to someone else in return. It's paying it forward, isn't it? It's reciprocity. When I am forgiven by God, I must be willing to forgive others, and not just once but seventy times seven. (Stop counting). That's what D&C 93:20 is all about. The more we give the more we get, and we are always unprofitable servants in the exchange (see Mosiah 2:21). We simply cannot get out of debt to God because we are showered, drenched as it were, in a downpour of love, light and truth from Him.

This is the process for us, and it certainly was the path of our Lord in mortality. He received grace, or divine assistance, from the Father. This grace He extended freely to His brethren and disciples. As He did so He received more and more grace. Eventually He received the fulness of the glory of the Father. Would anyone dare to contradict? Our Savior was Himself, saved by grace.

Listen to the Savior's descriptions: "The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him." (John 8:29). What insight! He was totally dependent upon the Father for power and knowledge. By doing God's will, the Savior enjoyed communion with the Father through which God gave grace to the Son.  "The Son can do nothing of himself," but "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." (John 5:19; 14:10). And so it is for each of us. Ask any missionary how people are converted and come into the immersing waters of baptism. Few will take credit for the transformation -- it is a spiritual matter.

In the relationship between the Father and the Son, we come to learn about our relationship with Christ. He reminds us, "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:4-5).

Whenever grace is extended to us in merciful assistance by Christ, something tangible is offered. We are given increased ability to cope, to act and eventually to overcome. We see grace in the scriptures as the loss of our natural man in the desire for sin and we see the accompanying ability to live in the light of God's laws going forward. Paul taught, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? . . . For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:1-2, 14). The demands of having to live God's laws eventually give way, as the roots of our spiritual maturity deepen, to wanting to obey because we are growing in ascending degrees from grace to grace in light and truth.

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith taught, "None ever were perfect but Jesus; and why was He perfect? Because He was the Son of God, and had the fullness of the Spirit, and greater power than any man." (TPJS, 187-88). The power came through the grace from the Father.


The partial record we have in D&C 93 makes clear that the possession of light and truth allows one to forsake the evil one and to be protected against all his wiles to deceive. Light and truth enable us grow and progress toward that perfect day of the fulness of the glory of God. Our Lord grew in levels of increasing power until he received a fulness. So it is for each of us. The Savior was already the spirit Son of God. He was unique as the Only Begotten physical Son. It was the reception of the divine attributes of light and truth by which He was glorified and gained eternal life. He became the spiritual or eternal Son of God when he received of the fulness of the Father. And so the divine pattern repeats within us.

"And thus [meaning in this way, this is how it was done] he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first." (D&C 93:14; emphasis mine). The Father announced, "This is my beloved Son." (D&C 93:15). All that was necessary for the Savior to receive the fulness was to receive the proferred gift and to act upon it by extending what He received to others. In matters of light and truth, "He received a fulness of the glory of the Father; And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him." (D&C 93:16-17).

The Savior makes it clear if I haven't, when He says, "I give unto you these sayings that you many understand. . . that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness. For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace." (D&C 93:19-20).

Joseph Smith added, "You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power." (TPJS, 346-47).

No matter how dark your night of trouble and affliction, the Son is always shining behind all the dark clouds overhead. When the storm passes He is always there beaming light and truth. Open your heart and bask in it, then radiate.

It's a commandment.